1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to wireways that support heavy loads of cables or other electrical and/or mechanical conduits in constructions of various types, particularly in nautical constructions. More particularly, the present invention relates to hangers, which are designed to be bolted to predeterminedly shaped and displaced vertical metal columns in such constructions. One type of such column, called a xe2x80x9cdowncomerxe2x80x9d, is U-shaped in cross-section and is welded to the underside of a metal deck or the like of a ship.
2. The Prior Art
Wireways, particularly those in naval vessels, must meet exacting standards. They are required to support loads of cables of various sizes and weights and to secure such loads against forces resulting from motion and vibration. Space is limited so that such loads often are dense and heavy.
Mounted at sequential heights along the downcomers are hangers, i.e. crosspieces. These hangers carry the bundles of cabes and are provided with (1) openings that can be registered with openings in the downcomers for the reception of bolts, and (2) slots that can accommodate metal straps for tying bundles of cables to the hangers. Improved stability and simplicity always are imperatives in wireway design.
The object of the present invention is to provide a particularly configured, horizontally elongated wireway hanger that is designed to be mated with a conventional vertically elongated downcomer. Both the downcomer and the hanger are channels that are generally U-shaped in cross-section, each having as integral components a saddle portion and a pair of equally deep wall portions extending orthogonally therefrom. Integral with and extending from one of the wall portions is an arrangement of flanges that snugly abut against the saddle and wall portions of the downcomer. The saddle portion of the downcomer has a series of holes. For registration with one of these holes is a hole in one of the flanges and/or associated wall portion of the hanger, by which the hanger may be securely bolted to the downcomer. A series of parallel transverse slots in the saddle portion of the hanger is adapted to receive strapping by which a load of cables carried by the hanger may be secured thereto. The arrangement is such that mating particularly configured hangers of the present invention with conventional downcomers produces a wireway that is unusually simple to produce and to assemble an unusually tight and secure in operation.
Other objects of the present invention will in part be obvious and will in part appear hereinafter.